I thought that the previous stages didn't have any solution where the 'player character' moves up or down, but that's difficult to verify, especially for the more complicated levels. I wouldn't be too surprised if such solutions exist (even though they're unintended), and it's probably cool to find them earlier. I'd still like to see them - mostly for a chance to create alternative versions of the levels (like what I did in 'That solution had a better puzzle' or 'Monochromatic').
Technically all the 'mechanics' exist almost from the very beginning, as there are only boxes, walls, and buttons (for now), so if you find an interaction before I force you to use it is OK; I just wanted to be sure that from some point on, the player is aware of it.
As for your problem with a convoluted path in the last level - this is the simplest solution I could design to force rebuilding an 'elevator' by moving a box upstairs - getting rid of alternative solutions is hard. I hope that showing a line that follows the solution will help with it a bit, but I'm not sure about it (I'm still slowly working on the update...). When the solution is too long or doesn't follow a simple pattern, the game just stops being fun and 30+-step puzzles are already pushing it quite a bit. Anyway, that one is more like an optional puzzle - it doesn't stop you from unlocking other puzzles, and there are no credits or anything hidden behind it.